The Fales River subdivision in Greenwood has been declared the priority for chip sealing this coming year under a cost-sharing arrangement between the province and County of Kings.
There will be no direct financial impact on the county, as the province will pay for half the project and the Village of Greenwood the other. Some of the village’s share will come from their approved gas tax allocation.
Engineering Services supervisor Tim Bouter said the municipality and provincial transportation department established a cost-sharing agreement in 2011 for paving provincially-owned J-class or subdivision roads. The county can submit an updated priority list to the department by Jan. 31 of each year.
There are 135 kilometres of provincial J-class roads in Kings. Bouter said the county’s half in the cost-sharing agreement is usually recouped from area residents in the form of a betterment charge. However, there have been no successful petitions of county residents for paving under the cost-sharing program as of late, so the county hasn’t been able to submit a priority list.
Bouter said council approved $165,000 of gas tax funding for Greenwood, to be allocated toward chip-sealing streets within the Fales River subdivision, in September. This has been one of the top resurfacing priorities in the municipality for many years. There is an agreement in principle to complete the project through the province’s chip-sealing program.
Council provisionally accepted the agreement and to loan the village its share of the cost in July. However, since then, the village has come up with another funding model that doesn’t require any financial commitment from the municipality.
Warden Diana Brothers, who represents Greenwood on council, declared a conflict on the matter and stepped down from chairing the council meeting while the issue was being discussed and put to a vote Jan. 15.
